A few questions about PVPFollow

Recently came back to WoW after a 3 month break. Decided to start a fresh Death Knight on a PVP server. Having no other characters made it quite a treat to level. It was a little easier, since this will be my second DK. Anyways, that's my intro. Onto the questions.

First, there is just a couple classes that have an enormous advantage over us that I just can't think of any kind of trick to win against it.

The worst is Enhancement Shamans. I had a 65 enhancement shaman roll me over when I was 70. I just had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do. Wolves eat you alive, stun you, heal the shaman when they do damage, and give the shaman a huge movement speed increase and makes them immune to chains of ice. How the hell am I supposed to defeat something like that? Switch to the wolves and death strike spam them and hope I can survive the damage? I mean, really, theres nothing I can really do.

Resto Shamans too. Cleanse Totem. That really, really screws up our damage. They're ridiculously hard to burn down even without the totem out.

Hunters, especially beast mastery hunters. I just can't do anything. They also get Aimed shot so it screws up any healing I try and do for myself.

And...

Next question, runeforging & Spec..I can't think of what the proper rune enchant would be for pvp. I'm using the ever popular 0/17/54 Unholy spec. I noticed that this spec lacks A LOT of damage that my PVE spec would otherwise have, and the significance is quite substantial. I'm also going to be wearing PVP gear, knocking my damage down even more, so, that's why I wondered if Fallen Crusader really WAS the PVP option.

But, that leaves us screwed against Rogues, Warriors, and S.priests. So, would swordshattering actually be the PVP rune enchant? 4% parry would help increase rune strike proc too, which would help a lot, i'd think.

Is that the fate of a DK to be hurting on damage that badly, though?

EDIT:

Oh yeah, also wanted to ask a question about presences. I'd assume sitting in frost would be best against, say, a Rogue or a warrior, and Unholy would be best against something like a mage or a warlock. What would do you go as, generally, in something like battle grounds though? They're all pretty tempting.

Edited, Jan 2nd 2010 10:39pm by Zafire

Get awesome gear. Most PvP nowadays is 3-shot-or-be-3-shotted. Really isn't any other suggestion I could give you there.


Hunters should be fairly easy. If you have the jump, just hack away at them. If they Disengage, counter with Death Grip. If they put up a freezing trap, counter with AMS. If they put up a frost trap, counter with CoI or your spec's respective slow (HS glyph, Chillblains or Desecration). If they get the jump or if you're fighting a BM hunter that has his I-WIN button popped, get the hell away from him and out of his line of sight. Attack the pet with Death Strike for healing and kill it if he doesn't call it back. In an ideal situation you could even get out of combat so you can mount up and run up to him.

As for your runes, I can't really help you, though I can answer this;

There are currently three classes in PvP - classes that deal insane damage and have relatively good armor and health, classes that deal insane damage and have CC/kiting abilities, and healers. Death Knights fall into the first category and to currently be succesful at PvP (or at least in the arenas) that's how you need to play your character. Most of the good DK's do wear PvP gear, but few seem to go above even 600 resilience. You'll want to focus on damage first and foremost because if you can't 3-shot someone, they are most likely going to kick your ***, even if it takes them 5 abilities to kill you rather than 3.


I'm in Blood pretty much permanently, simply for the added damage. I guess it depends on your spec, but you'll probably want to be in Blood Presence in 90% of the cases - especially if you've got imp Unholy Presence in your spec. I only change to frost if I'm going up against an enemy of which I am sure that he cannot be 3-shot and that the battle will become a long outlasting match. I ocassionaly use Unholy to keep up with tanks in SOTA. Regardless of what you do, you'll want to consider grabbing Tuskarr's Vitality.